Blog - Page 64

A collection of 2,459 blog posts

Self-ImprovementDec 1, 2015
12 Chrome Extensions to Motivate You With Each New Tab

At this exact moment, I have 16 tabs open in my browser. How about you? With the full power of the internet at our disposal, it can be pretty easy to waste precious moments navigating to the…let’s say, less-than-productive corners of the web. I’m as guilty of this as anyone—I’ve even shared extensively how often I get sucked into Facebook! So it’s great that there are quite a few folks out there focused on helping us keep track of what really matters as we surf the web. There’s a particularl

ResearchNov 30, 2015
Why Building An Audience Is So Hard (And Why I’m Still Trying)

It’s easy to feel like you can grow a loyal audience in no time using the latest growth hacks or Twitter and Facebook tricks. But the truth is, it’s not that simple. Growing an audience is hard. You have to have talent. You have to put in a lot of work. And there’s no 1–2–3 solution. In this post, I’m happy to share some of our experiences from building an audience at Buffer alongside six key ingredients to successfully building an audience. Let’s get started! Why it’s difficult to build

OpenNov 24, 2015
Introducing the New Buffer Salary Formula, Calculate-Your-Salary App and The Whole Team’s New Salaries

Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Learn more about the latest formula and see all the team’s current salaries here . It’s been over 2 years since we first shared our transparent salary formula ; we’ve be

ResearchNov 23, 2015
3rd Party Facebook Publishing Tools Aren’t Penalized: Debunking An Age Old Social Media Myth

If you search for information on how Facebook’s Newsfeed algorithm treats posts from 3rd party publishing apps, you’ll find plenty of content suggesting that reach and engagement will be lower through 3rd party posting. As a subject very close to our hearts here at Buffer, we wanted to dive in and share our own thoughts and experiences in this area. The TL;DR version, is that posts from 3rd tools are not penalized and will perform just as well as posts shared natively to Facebook. If you’d li

OpenNov 23, 2015
Question Your Goals

I’ll be the first to admit it: When I first got hooked on the idea of startups, the goal in my mind was monetary. I wanted to be “financially free” so that I could do all the things I wanted to do but was unable to do due to money. So my first startup was a “big idea.” It could change the world (or at least I thought so), and I would be rewarded enormously for what I would do — given time. After trying a few different ways in order to reach the success I had in mind, I realized that I was unh

ReportsNov 20, 2015
Buffer in October: $7.8M Annual Revenue, Pablo 2.0 Launch, Customer Happiness at 95%

October was an unusual month for us, numbers-wise, as a result of us moving from 7-day to 30- day trials of Buffer for Business. Here’s more about that and everything else going on at Buffer in our October 2015 investors’ report. Key metrics * 2,841,519 total registered users (+3.0%) * 226,445 monthly active users (+3.0%) * 55,460 average daily active users (+2.0%) * $650,478 monthly recurring revenue (+1.0%) * $7.81M annual recurring revenue (+1.0%) * $2,546,589 cash in bank * 56 team

Tips / How ToNov 19, 2015
How to Develop and Perfect Your Social Media Sharing Schedule (It Could Double Your Traffic!)

Nowadays, in order to grow an audience on social media, it’s not as simple as just posting when you feel like it. Audiences have become more sophisticated over time and as a result it is important to have some sort of social media strategy. In order to start implementing that strategy, a schedule is a must for a lot of businesses. A sharing schedule can help you double your traffic and provide your audience with consistent and valuable information that will make them more likely to follow and

Self-ImprovementNov 19, 2015
There Is No Backup Plan

I was talking with Leo the other day about plans to launch a new Buffer feature when he said something that totally rearranged my mind. He diplomatically opened the conversation with an “If we can…” type statement and I immediately keyed in on the uncertainty I heard in that “if”, asking about alternative dates and plans, the likelihood of this or that. Leo quickly corrected what I had heard: “It’s going to happen. There is no backup plan.” And immediately, my brain calmed. Shifted. Crystalli

The #1 Mistake We All Make on Twitter (It’s Probably Not What You’re Expecting)

This is how most companies tackle Twitter: start an account, follow a bunch of people, send a few Tweets about their business and hope for the best. And in some ways there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. These steps are necessary to get up and running and learn the ropes on Twitter. But, the biggest mistake we’re all making is not using two extremely simple Twitter features to their full potential. Replies and mentions. Replies and mentions are two of Twitter’s most powerful features. T

ReportsNov 17, 2015
Why We Ask Our Team to Grade Us Every Month: Buffer’s October Hiring Report

For the first time in October, we saw Buffer’s total team members (bootcampers and full time) rise above 60. The Buffer team has more than doubled since our last retreat in Iceland, and we’re always giving thought to how to better cultivate the Buffer culture. As a result, October’s hiring report focuses on some pretty big changes, including asking the whole team to give us a grade each month so we can keep improving. Read on for all the numbers, experiments and changes in hiring this month!

Why We Have Paid, Paid Vacation and Give Teammates an Extra $1,000 to Take Time Off

Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Go here to view the latest version of this post. When I first started working on Buffer and learning on sites like TechCrunch about the kinds of amazing perks and benefits some startups provide, I thought unlimited vacation time sounded like such a great idea. Giving everyone the opportunity to unplug w

OpenNov 16, 2015
The Unexpected Challenge of Unlimited Vacation Time

Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Go here to view the latest version of this post. What job perk could possibly be better than unlimited paid vacation days? Just picture the perfect work/life balance , the quality time you’d spend with family and friends

Content MarketingNov 16, 2015
How to Write a Content Marketing Strategy Step-by-Step [w/ Strategy Template!]

The good news: your boss or client is totally on board with your running content marketing. (SCORE!) The challenge: she wants to see a content marketing plan . . . and you have NO IDEA what that’s supposed to look like. I’ve been there. It’s a tough situation, because you’ve been doing content marketing with your gut this whole time, and now you’re being asked to put all that into a document. (And the gut-to-document process can be pretty painful.) Plus, you know that awesome content marketin

Buffer NewsNov 12, 2015
Introducing the Social Media Calendar by Buffer: The Natural, Visual Way to Easily Manage All Your Social Accounts

Editor’s Note: This is an older post, check out our new social media calendar here. Imagine you could plan and manage your social media updates the same way you do your Google or Outlook calendars. We wanted to bring the ease of scheduling events on your calendar right into your Buffer account. Sharing with Buffer will never be the same! Introducing the Social Media Calendar for fully managing all

What Michigan Wolverines Basketball Taught Me About Hiring at Buffer

I’ve been a college basketball fan for as long as I can remember. Sports teams are like any other organization: They strive to organize individuals to accomplish shared challenges and goals. As a Michigan Wolverines fan, I’m continually inspired by how Michigan’s coach, John Beilein , accomplishes these goals. Beilein is the only active collegia

ResearchNov 10, 2015
A Brief History of Social Media (The Stuff You Probably Didn’t Already Know) And 4 Predictions on its Future

Whenever I get asked what my favorite book is, I always reply The Pirates Dilemma . The book tells the story of punk, disco, hip-hop, graffiti, and how modern technology has made the ideas and innovations of youth culture increasingly intimate and increasingly global at the same time. It’s truly fascinating. And when you look back, you can see the origins of the current social media revolution can be traced as

Self-ImprovementNov 10, 2015
A Personal Trainer for Your Goals: 4 Ways to Work with a Partner And Achieve More

In the world of weight training, it’s well known that having a partner can lead to seeing gains more quickly. And research has shown that those who switch from training alone to using a personal trainer see many improvements. Similarly, pair programming has been shown to improve quality of code, as well as keep both developers in “flow” state for a more sustained p

OpenNov 9, 2015
Hacking Our Brains Against Bias: 7 Lessons from Facebook, Pinterest And Google on Building Diverse Teams

Working on making Buffer an inclusive place where all kinds of people feel they belong and thrive is one of my favorite things. It’s a unique time to be working on diversity goals at a tech startup . On the one hand, there is quite a bit of work to do to make the strides we’d all

OpenNov 5, 2015
Beyond Spellcheck: 7 Web Tools That Check for Empathy, Inclusivity and More

Of all the things that have been known to keep me awake at night , one of the repeat offenders is thinking of times when I’ve said the totally wrong thing to a person. That embarrassment of putting my foot in my mouth or just rubbing someone the wrong way tends to linger long past the initial moment. Luckily, technology is working on making these sleepless nights a thing of the past! I’m always on the lookout for writing tools [https://blog.buffera

7 Tools to Create an Infographic in 30 Minutes (Design Skills or Not)

Infographics are such a fun and effective visual way to display information . We at Buffer have certainly used them quite a few times to share information . I always enjoy looking at them, but always feel like there is no way I c

News and TrendsNov 4, 2015
Twitter Hearts: What the Change From Favorites to Likes Could Mean for Your Engagement

Twitter favorites are changing to Twitter likes. The star is switching to a heart. What might it mean for marketers? We’re thrilled to see the all the latest changes and improvements to Twitter (Twitter hearts come hot on the heels of the announcement for Twitter Polls ), and we’re eager to learn what effect it might have on our sharing, engaging, and marketing. As we start experimenting and testing

How We Explain Stock Options to Team Members & How Much Money They Would Make

A while back Danielle Morill asked this question on Twitter: How many startups provide a spreadsheet explaining exactly what would happen to your options given several possible outcomes for the company — Danielle Morrill (@DanielleMorrill) May 13, 2015 Explaining equity is something we try to do as best as we can at Buffer, which Joel shared in his reply. A big learning we’ve had as we’ve added team members is that understanding stock options and putting them into context is not very easy.

Self-ImprovementNov 2, 2015
My Month Without the Internet: Why I Sailed Across the Atlantic in Search of Disconnected Time

Making time to go offline is never easy. There’s almost never a “right time” to do it; you might lose opportunities or even business while disconnecting. And yet, if you don’t actively look for ways to disconnect, it’s not very likely to happen by itself. We have all accepted that eating well and exercising [https://

Guides & CoursesNov 2, 2015
The Beginner’s Guide to URL Shorteners: How to Shorten and Track Links for Social Media

I sometimes feel like URL shorteners are some of the most understated tools in internet marketing, and there have been more than a few times that I wished I’d had someone share some advice on URL shorteners earlier in my marketing career . For instance: What do you do with really long links? What if you want to track the results? What if the link—long and unwieldy—upstages the content? So, if you’re new to the world of URL shorteners—much